


(wherever i go) you bring me home

by zayntakesthepayne



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-05-31 18:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15125132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zayntakesthepayne/pseuds/zayntakesthepayne
Summary: Zayn is just trying to get through high school with straight A's and his parents' constant approval, but when he's thrown into a group assignment with a bunch of random guys, he's forced to have fun for once.





	1. Clocks

Zayn doesn't want to go to Niall's house. He doesn't even know the guy, he doesn't know  _any_  of the guys, not really. All he knows is that Niall always carries a guitar around with him, Harry has lots of female friends, Louis is always sassing off to the teachers and Liam, well, Liam is just a horrible person, really. He’s the classic teacher’s pet – top of every class, narc, loved by teachers but hated by students. Really, Liam alone is enough reason for Zayn to _not_ want to go to Niall’s house.

But the assignment they’re going to be working on will be marked individually, so if Zayn doesn't pull his weight, who’s to say the others wouldn't dob him in. And by others, he’s really only counting on Liam. So he goes. 

Niall's house is kind of small, like Zayn's. It makes Zayn feel a little better knowing that he isn't the only kid at their prestigious private school who doesn't have a two-storey house with a pool in the backyard and a butler. (He isn't sure about the butler part, but it seems like the kind of thing the other kids would have.)

He wonders if Niall is also a scholarship student, but he doesn’t ask when the blond opens the door, greeting Zayn with an unnecessarily wide grin. "Hey, buddy. Come on in. The others are here."

Zayn enters the house and then stops, waiting to see if Niall will ask for him to take his shoes off. He doesn't, just quietly leads the way. Zayn smiles, thinking he might like this kid.

They walk through the house and into the garage. It's quite small, but all the space is taken up by musical instruments. Zayn counts three guitars, a bass, two keyboards, and there's even a drum kit. It suddenly makes sense why Niall’s guitar is almost another limb on his body.

Like Niall said, the others are already there, sitting on the garage floor with their laptops open, but they don't seem to be doing any work. Harry and Louis are laughing uncontrollably at something on Louis' screen, and beside them, Liam sits unoccupied, waiting. He’s the first to look up when Zayn enters, not seeming too happy. 

"Guys, Zayn is here," Niall announces, grabbing Harry and Louis' attention. They're still smiling as they wave.

Liam, however, grumbles out a, "So glad you could join us,” before pulling his laptop onto his lap.

Zayn's eyebrows furrow as he tries to work out what could possibly be up Liam's ass this time - then he realises. He pulls his phone out to check the time. 5.43. They agreed to be at Niall’s at 5.30. Liam is mad at Zayn because he was  _thirteen minutes_  late. Zayn can't believe this.

Before he can say anything, Louis speaks up. "Don't mind Liam. He seems to hate all of us so far."

Harry nods. "It's true."

That makes Zayn feel better, and he thinks he’ll like Louis and Harry just fine as well.

He takes a seat beside Harry, who immediately scootches over to make more room for him. Niall sits between him and Liam, much to Zayn’s gladness, closing off the circle.

"So-" Liam starts before Louis cuts him off.

"I think before we start any work, we should get to know each other a little better," the blue-eyed boy suggests with a cheeky grin.

"Stall all you want, Tomlinson. We're still going to get this done," Liam tells him.

"Great! So you wouldn't mind if we took a break?" Louis replies.

"You can't take a break from something you haven't even started."

"Watch me." Louis jumps up from the floor, making a bee line for one of the keyboards. "Who wants to hear me play The Fray?"

Harry is the only one who raises his hand. It’s enough for Louis as he turns the keyboard on and then begins to play. He's quite good, Zayn thinks, but he knows nothing about music so he wouldn't trust his own judgements. 

Louis is raising his eyebrows suggestively as he plays, directing it entirely towards Liam, taunting the boy. "You like this?" he teases.

Liam closes his laptop and stands up. He walks up to Louis and Zayn is ready for a fight to break out, but instead Liam shoves him over with his hip. "Try this," Liam challenges before beginning to play a song Zayn instantly recognises -  _Clocks_  by Coldplay.

Zayn is kind of in awe as he watches Liam laugh when Louis begins to clap him on. How a boy can go from being so uptight to so chill in .5 seconds, Zayn has no clue, but Louis must have some kind of magical abilities because not once has Zayn seen Liam smile like that.

Niall hops up and grabs one of the electric guitars, plugging it in. He's setting up the pedals while Liam continues to play. Then, suddenly, a loud chord is struck and soon Niall is rocking out with Liam. 

"Alright, so that's what we're doing," Louis says, getting into it. He grabs one of the acoustic guitars and then stands by Niall, watching the chords the blond boy is playing before strumming along, trying to pick up on the song.

Zayn and Harry are the only ones left on the floor and the curly-haired boy glances at him before jumping up and bolting to the drum kit, as if Zayn was going to fight him for it or something. Harry clearly has had little experience playing drums, but his smile is so wide Zayn can't complain. They all look so happy, laughing together as they make below-average music.

Just as Zayn is beginning to feel left out for his lack of musical ability, Louis nods at him. "You going to sing, or what?"

Zayn's eyes widen. "Uh, I can't-I can't sing," he stutters out, thrown off guard by the assumption Louis just made. 

Louis stops playing and gives Zayn a look that suddenly makes  _him_  feel like the Liam - ruiner of all things fun. The others stop playing, too, and Zayn feels like the biggest loser. He wonders how Liam can handle this?

"Zayn, my _friend_ , my _buddy_ ," Louis begins, dramatically elongating each word. "Did you just listen to Harry's playing and think  _'wow, that boy is a_ really _good drummer?'_  - no offence, Haz."

Harry shakes his head from behind the kit. "None taken. It's true, I'm rubbish."

"Exactly," Louis agrees, looking back to Zayn. "Now, we're going to try this again, and you are going to sing because, quite frankly, this band needs a singer and you’re the only one left."

Something about the way Louis talks, the way he puts everything into perspective, inspires Zayn to nod his head. He stands up and they all get ready to take it from the top.

"Wait, Louis, I think you should hop on the bass," Niall suggests before they begin.

Louis points at him. "Now  _that_  is what I call forward thinking."

While Louis is setting up his bass, Zayn looks back at Liam who is playing another song now, mucking around. He’s still focused as ever, blocking everything else out, but it’s a lot more relaxed than Zayn has ever seen him.

Liam has always been the worst to Zayn - he was the one who dobbed him in for having a smoke behind the school. Zayn was suspended for two weeks. Two weeks that he missed out on class and then had to spend the next two weeks catching up on double the amount of work, not to mention his parents were  _pissed_. 

Zayn didn't like Liam because he was such a freaking goody-two-shoes. Seeing him let loose after five years of schooling together was not something he could get over so quickly.

Louis is finally ready and makes it known. "Alright, all set - Liam, stop playing that crap and play the other crap.” He’s holding the bass as if he has no idea what he’s doing. Which, Zayn figures, he doesn't.

Liam starts playing the intro to  _Clocks_  again and all eyes are on Niall, the unspoken director of the whole piece, as he counts down and then nods for the other musicians to jump in. Zayn waits until his cue and then begins singing.

_"Lights go out and I can't be seen,_ _  
_Tides that I tried to swim against,_  
_Have brought me down on my knees,_  
_Oh, I beg, I beg them please-"__

"Wait, wait, wait!" Louis holds up his hand, stopping everybody. He glares at Zayn, who is now wondering what he did wrong. "You're a filthy liar, Malik."

"What?"

"You said you can't sing. You told me,  _to my face_ , that you can't sing. Yet there you were, belting your little heart out with one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. Filthy. Liar."

Zayn isn't sure whether it's a compliment or not, so he doesn't say anything back.

"He's right, Zayn. You’ve got _lungs_ ," Niall agrees.

"I couldn't hear you over my terrible playing, but I bet you sound incredible," Harry calls from the drums.

The only person who doesn't say anything is Liam, and Zayn notices.

"Lads, I think we're having a  _Lemonade Mouth_  moment right here," Louis says.

"A what?" Liam asks.

" _Lemonade Mouth_ ," Niall repeats, as if it's obvious. Because, to the rest of them, it is. "You know, the movie. The one with the chick from  _Good Luck Charlie_."

Liam still looks confused.

"Look, it doesn't matter. What I'm trying to say is I think we should start a band," Louis explains. "If Harry and I practice some more, we could really be something special."

Zayn tries not to feel too good about the fact that Louis didn’t include him in the _needs more practice_ column.

"Agreed," Niall says.

"I'm in," Harry agrees.

Everything is happening so fast Zayn can't think enough to speak. Everybody is looking between him and Liam. He's looking at Liam, who is looking back at him, as if they're waiting for the other to crack.

Finally, Liam shrugs. "Why not?"

And that's how it happens. That's how Zayn got himself into a band he didn't want to be in in the first place.


	2. Pool

Zayn walks into school with his sleeves rolled up and his head hanging low. The irony is not missed on him; a bold fashion statement (for an extremely prestigious private school, that is) but the unwillingness to look up and own it. The truth is, he would love to stand out. He would love to walk into school wearing a leather jacket over his uniform, or dye his hair blond, or really anything ridiculous. But there is a 99.99% chance his parents would disown him immediately if he cut a single strand from his fringe himself.

He gets to his first period class and takes a seat in the third row from the front. Almost immediately the seats beside him are taken up and he is able to blend in. 

"Zayn, my man, I was trying to find you this morning," Niall said, appearing in the seat beside Zayn from absolutely no where. "I've got an idea for our band. We should do covers, right? And post them on Youtube. I'll make an Instagram and Facebook page for us, too, once we have a name."

Zayn doesn't know what to say. He nods. "Okay. Cool."

Niall grins. "Man of few words. That's good. We need a mysterious guy. The straight ladies and gay men will love you."

But Zayn isn't a man of few words. He talks a lot at home and around his best friends. He just doesn't have anyone he's comfortable enough with at his school.

The teacher walks in, an old man with a gut that hangs over his waist and evident sweat patches under his arms. His face is wrinkly and he does not look happy, but Mr Wilkins never looks happy.

"Malik," he calls to Zayn from the front of the room. "Roll your sleeves down, please."

Zayn blushes and obliges.

♪ ♪ ♪

Lunch is not what Zayn is used to. Instead of sitting on the steps in the senior area by himself, he is stopped on his way by someone calling his name. It's Louis, sitting on a table with Harry and Niall on the seats below him, and an acoustic guitar in his hands. They wave him over.

"Niall's teaching me to play bass on this guitar. I'm sure you can imagine how terrible this is going," Louis explains as Zayn reaches them. 

Zayn smiles and takes a seat . "I'm sure I couldn't do any better."

"You don't need to. You've got the lungs of Mariah Carey and Beyoncé combined," Louis says and Zayn is genuinely flattered by that.

"Are we having a band meeting?" Liam asks as he takes a seat beside Zayn without looking at him. 

Zayn looks around, realising that it is just them - just the band. He wonders for a moment how far they will actually take this, whether the others really believe they're a band now. But he quickly shakes that thought away. They all have their own friends and lives and once the assignment is over, they won't have any reason to keep this up. Whatever this is. 

Still, Zayn can't pretend he doesn't have the best lunch ever at school that day, watching Niall try to teach Louis who keeps swearing, frustrated with himself while Harry laughs until he cries and Liam loses his patience with Louis, even though he's not the one teaching him. Zayn can't pretend it isn't a nice feeling, being part of a group for once. 

"You guys should come over mine after school. I don't have a music room like Niall, but I have a pool," Louis offers.

"I'm in," Harry says.

"I guess we should work on our assignment, after all," Liam says.

"Yes, Liam," Louis replies. "That's exactly what we're going to do. Work on our assignment."

♪ ♪ ♪

"CANNONBALL!" Niall yells before jumping into Louis' pool, creating an explosion of waves throughout.

Zayn laughs from the side of the pool as Harry complains about his hair getting wet. 

"Do you know how long it takes to dry?" he asks.

"Haz, my friend, you are literally standing nipples-deep in a pool," Louis replies. "What did you expect?"

Harry grumbles about being able to swim without wetting his hair but nobody is really listening.

Zayn watches his feet as they glide back and forth beneath the water, the only part of his body below the surface. Zayn can't swim. It is an issue, he's aware, but it's too late for him to learn. A seventeen year old learning how to swim is kind of embarrassing.

"Zayn, for the love of God, please get naked and join us," Niall says, swimming over to the Pakistani boy. "It's thirty degrees out. You must be boiling."

Zayn is a little sweaty. He's wearing his school shorts and his sleeves are rolled up, his shirt unbuttoned, but he is also in the direct sun. "Nah, I'm not that hot," he lies anyway, because it's better than admitting he can't swim.

"I don't believe you," Louis says and then proceeds to splash Zayn. Niall cackles, loud and obnoxious, and then joins in and soon Niall, Louis and Harry are attacking Zayn with water. 

He jumps out of the pool and runs as far against the pool gate as possible, rubbing his eyes which are now stinging but unable to stop laughing. 

"You're soaked now. You might as well come in," Louis points out, so Zayn takes his shirt off and then his pants, doing a little strip tease as the others whoop and holler. Except Liam, of course, who is floating by himself in a corner. Staring at Zayn. They're all in their underwear - even Louis, who lives there so he could easily just grab a pair of swimmers, but insisted on being in his underwear - so Zayn doesn't understand what the big deal is, why Liam is staring at him.

"There. You got me naked. But I'm not going in," Zayn tells him.

"Can't you swim?" Niall asks and it's meant to be a joke but Louis is far too smart for that.

"Oh! It makes so much sense now." Louis shakes his head, as if he can't believe he didn't realise it before. "Hop on in. We'll teach you."

Zayn stares at them for a moment.

"We'll be kind. We promise. Right, lads?" Louis continues trying to convinced Zayn.

"Right," Harry agrees. 

Zayn sneaks a glance over at Liam, who is still watching on. He swims forward. 

"I'm a lifeguard. I can help," he offers and it is possibly the nicest - wait, the  _only_ nice thing - Liam has ever said. Like, ever.

Zayn would be a fool to deny that. So he hops in and the boys all cheer as they begin to grab at his limbs, trying to keep him afloat, as if Zayn is unable to do so on his own. He lets them. 

At first, it is a hot mess of random instructions -  _hold your breath, kick your legs, up and under up and under up -_ until finally Liam steps in.

The others release Zayn and allow Liam to take over. He wraps an arm under Zayn's torso, the other hand pressed lightly to his back, and Zayn feels so light in Liam's arms not just because of the water but because of how gently he is being held.

"Okay, take a deep breath," Liam instructs Zayn.

"I swear, if you dunk me under water I'll pull you down with me," Zayn threatens, a little on edge because this is embarrassing.

Liam laughs. "I won't," he promises. "I just need you to relax."

So Zayn takes a deep breath and then Liam tells him to kick his legs so he kicks. He feels like a child, wonders why his dad never did this with him when he actually  _was_ a kid.

"That's it, good," Liam encourages. He's being patronising and Zayn hates it and Zayn hates Liam but he doesn't want to say anything because he doesn't know how to escape from this situation. "Now I'm going to let go of you, and I want you to paddle all the way to the wall. Okay?" 

Zayn doesn't think he can do it, but he nods anyway because they're all watching him and he  _knows_ they know he's embarrassed and they're trying really hard to be encouraging, not patronising (except Liam), but he still feels stupid and small. He's just hoping they all forget about this one day but he knows they won't.

Liam lets go and Zayn panics, kicking his legs and waving his arms. 

"Breathe, breathe," Liam says, still close by his side. "Just kick and push your body forward."

Zayn breathes, feels himself slowly sinking as he does so. He begins to kick, using his torso to guide himself forward while the other continue to cheer him on, as if he is swimming an olympic race. And it works. It's working. He's swimming. He's actually swimming.

When he reaches the wall, they all explode into a roar of celebration. Harry swims over - much faster than Zayn did - and picks him up, carrying him over his shoulder as they bounce around the pool. Zayn laughs and cheers for himself and he feels like he might cry because - and it's so stupid, but - he has never swam like that before. He has never effectively gotten from point A to point B. And people always offered to teach him to swim, but these boys actually  _did_. They just did it, like they just started a band. 

He wonders if they would so sporadically move on from Zayn's friendship, too. But for the moment, he allowed himself to be praised for the achievement he reached. Twelve years later.

♪ ♪ ♪

That night, while he's listening to Jeremih on Spotify, Zayn gets a message on Facebook. It's from the group chat Liam made to discuss meeting up for their assignment. 

Louis has sent the photos his mother took of the five of them posing together, half-naked in front of the pool. Zayn's in the middle, grinning like a little kid, and the others stand around him smiling like proud parents. Even Liam. Zayn zooms in on Liam's face in all of them and takes a screenshot of the close up, so he never forgets the day he made Liam Payne proud.

Zayn love reacts the photos.

Niall changes the group chat name to  _Zayn can swim_.

Harry changes the group chat colours to red.

They spend the rest of the night spamming it and Zayn can't help but think  _friends_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did it! I updated! See you all in another five months lol


End file.
